Lantana camara cultivar xe2x80x98Robpatparxe2x80x99.
The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Lantana plant, botanically known as Lantana camara, and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name xe2x80x98Robpatparxe2x80x99.
The new Lantana is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Grain Valley, Mo. The objective of the breeding program is to create freely-flowering Lantanas with medium pink-colored flowers.
The new Lantana originated from a cross made by the Inventor in 1995 of the Lantana cultivar xe2x80x98Pink Capricexe2x80x99, not patented, as the female, or seed parent, with an unidentified Lantana selection as the male, or pollen parent. The new Lantana was selected in 1995 as a single plant from the resulting progeny by the Inventor in a controlled environment in Grain Valley, Mo., on the basis of its medium pink-colored flowers.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal cuttings taken in a controlled environment in Grain Valley, Mo., has shown that the unique features of this new Lantana are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.
Plants of the cultivar xe2x80x98Robpatparxe2x80x99 have not been observed under all possible environmental conditions. The phenotype may vary somewhat with variations in environment and culture such as temperature, light intensity, daylength, water status, and/or fertilizer rate or type without, however, any variance in genotype.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of xe2x80x98Robpatparxe2x80x99. These characteristics in combination distinguish xe2x80x98Robpatparxe2x80x99 as a new and distinct Lantana cultivar:
1. Upright and outwardly spreading plant habit; uniformly mounded plant form.
2. Vigorous growth habit; rapid growth rate.
3. Freely flowering habit.
4. Yellow to medium pink-colored flowers.
Plants of the new Lantana are comparable to plants of the female parent, the cultivar xe2x80x98Pink Capricexe2x80x99. In side-by-side comparisons conducted in Grain Valley, Mo., plants of the new Lantana differ from plants of the cultivar xe2x80x98Pink Capricexe2x80x99 in the following characteristics:
1. Plants of the new Lantana are more vigorous than plants of the cultivar xe2x80x98Pink Capricexe2x80x99.
2. Plants of the new Lantana have stronger lateral branches than plants of the cultivar xe2x80x98Pink Capricexe2x80x99.
3. Plants of the new Lantana are more freely-flowering than plants of the cultivar xe2x80x98Pink Capricexe2x80x99.
4. Opened flower color of plants of the new Lantana is more homogenous than flower color of the cultivar xe2x80x98Pink Capricexe2x80x99 which is more multi-colored.
Compared to plants of the cultivar xe2x80x98Robpatpetxe2x80x99, disclosed in U.S. Plant patent application Ser. No. 09/895,641, plants of the new Lantana have medium pink-colored opened flowers whereas plants of the cultivar xe2x80x98Robpatpetxe2x80x99 have pale pink-colored opened flowers.
Plants of the new Lantana differ from plants of the male parent, the unidentified Lantana selection, and other Lantana cultivars known to the Inventor primarily in the new Lantana""s unique combination of mounded and uniform plant habit, medium pink opened flower color, and freely-flowering habit.